Traditionally, sport has been seen as a sideline. Something that happens in the part of a newspaper that Government doesn’t read. As a result, the public budget for sport has been small and has been distributed with no real strategy or vision. We have struggled to know why we fund it. There has been a feeling that sport is a good thing, but no tangible evidence to show why.

That is beginning to change. Because sport is so much more than jumpers for goalposts and small boys in the park. I strongly believe that sport can help many of my ministerial colleagues to achieve some of their objectives – much more cost effectively than some of the methods currently employed.